The Importance of Becoming a Martyr

The famous martyr Neda

In conjunction with the opposition's plan to mourn those who have been killed by the regime 40 days after their death, labeling someone a martyr has special significance in Shii Islam and for the opposition movement. In the West, martyrdom is often associated with suicide bombers and jokes about getting virgins in heaven. Yet in Shii Islam when someone dies for a cause, labeling them a martyr conjures up images of a struggle between justice and tyranny.

It all begins with the third Imam of Shii Imam Hussein who was the grandson of the prophet Muhammad. Shii Muslims believe he was the rightful ruler of all Muslims, but his power had been usurped by the Sunni Caliph Yazid. Instead of accepting the unjust rule of Yazid, Hussein rebelled against impossible odds. Hussein and his followers were brutally slaughtered in Karbala by the forces of Yazid in 688. From that moment, Hussein became a martyr because he stood up for the importance of justice in the face of tyranny. His death is commemorated by Shiis in the important holiday of Ashura in which the faithful mourn for Hussein.

Thus in Shii Islam, labeling someone as a martyr links your struggle to Hussein's struggle for justice. It paints the individual who has been killed as the similar to Hussein who died for justice and paints the killer of the individual as the equivalent of Yazid who is an evil and tyrannical figure. Khomeini effectively labeled people who were killed by the Shah as martyrs in the 1979 Revolution. During the Iran-Iraq war, every soldier who was killed was considered a martyr and huge memorials to the dead can still be seen everywhere in Iran. In fact a popular legend during the war was that Saddam Hussein and Yazid both come from the Iraqi city of Tikrit .

Not only are individuals labeled martyrs, a cult is created around them to celebrate both their life and sacrifice.That is why you have seen such a emphasis on the death of Neda and the importance of immortalizing her. Indeed the world has caught on to this very Iranian tradition and have also taken Neda's death to symbolize the movement. The opposition has done a great job at creating effective martyrs out of Neda, Sohrab, and sadly many others. In Iran it is not viewed as exploiting their deaths, but rather using their sacrifice to continue the struggle they died for.

The story of Hussein also shows why the concept of justice is so important in Shii Islam. So the next time you hear the opposition calling someone a martyr, remember that they are trying to paint their struggle as one between justice and tyranny. The reformists argue that freedom and democracy will lead to Hussein's desire for a just society while the hardliners dictatorship creates an unjust society. It is a very effective tool to fight a supposedly religious government with religious imagery suggesting that their rule is the epiphany of evil and tyranny. Also it allows the opposition to protest the tyranny of the regime in a ceremony that is ostensibly a religious ritual.